The base for the camera was attached by a body piercer using a local anesthetic. YouTube

December 6, 2010

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The video: New York University photography professor Wafaa Bilal has surgically implanted a digital camera in the back of his head that will capture and stream images at one-minute intervals for a year. (View a video about his initiative, below.) The project, called "The 3rd I," was commissioned by Qatar's Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, which will soon begin displaying a live-stream of photos showing what's going on behind Bilal. Although the camera will be on all the time, Bilal will wear a lens cap at NYU to protect students' privacy. He says the project has cost him dinner invites, and is "uncomfortable for sure." Is it art?The reaction: So far, Bilal has only documented "a shower curtain and a bunch of other boring stuff," says Tom Goldman in The Escapist, but this compelling project is "sure to capture a lot of interesting moments in the hundreds of thousands of photos he plans to take over the next year." He'll certainly capture plenty of "people trying to figure out why he's got a camera sticking out of his neck," says John Mello in PC World. "The 'wow' factor" of the implant aside, "what is the merit" in adding to the "glut of 'a picture every day' videos on YouTube"? asks Frank Kobola in Digital Trends. Watch a CNN report about Bilal's project: